In the near future, Russia, India and China will influence international politics more than any other non-OECD-state. They are bound to play a pivotal role, in particular with regard to political and economic questions concerning their regional surroundings. The analysis of these countries’ regional foreign policy-making and effects help, accordingly, to explain political and socio-economic transitions within the regions concerned.

The research project aimed at answering two major questions. One the one hand, examined motives, guiding principles and instruments of Russia’s, India’s and China’s foreign policies, respectively. Do these states have an explicitly pronounced foreign policy agenda and how is it pursued? Key questions were

• to identify the three countries foreign policy principles and their respective priorities in their regional international relations, and to compare these with each other, to examine the foreign policies of these major powers vis-à-vis different individual countries within the respective region and the evolution of bilateral regional relations as well as
• to examine the dynamics of regionalization processes (such as, e.g., regional integration) and the respective role Russia, India and China view for themselves in such contexts.

On the other hand, the project focused on the relational structures between neighbouring countries examining how Russia’s, India’s and China’s actual political, economic and cultural relations to their neighbouring countries impact on governance structures within their regional proximity, both on a regional level and within individual countries. To evaluate whether and how the interactions of these three states work intentionally or unintentionally, in this phase, the investigation concentrates on the domestic governance structures of the regional counterparts.

First Results:
The concluding conference “Democracy in Retreat? Do Russia and China promote autocracy in their neighbourhoods?” took place on 1 March 2011.